Hebrew word · H7784

שׁוּק

bashuk

street

Street or lane in a town. It is rare in Biblical Hebrew (Prov 7:8; Eccl 12:4–5; Song 3:2). It is related to Akkadian sūqu, 'street, lane.' In later Aramaic and Arabic (sūq), the related word came to mean 'market.'

Appears 4 times in 4 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

street

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Proverbs 7:8

Range of meaning

Street or lane in a town. It is rare in Biblical Hebrew (Prov 7:8; Eccl 12:4–5; Song 3:2). It is related to Akkadian sūqu, 'street, lane.' In later Aramaic and Arabic (sūq), the related word came to mean 'market.'

Against the English

'Street' is fine. The picture should be a narrow lane between packed houses in an Iron Age walled town, not a broad modern road.

Used elsewhere in the period

In Song 3:2 the woman searches 'in the streets and in the squares' at night. In Eccl 12:4–5 the 'doors to the street' close, and mourners go about 'in the street.' It is the public lane, the shared space of town life.

From the study of Song of Songs 3:2

Range of meaning

Street or lane, the narrow passages between houses in a walled town. In post-biblical Hebrew and Aramaic it came to mean 'market'.

Against the English

'Streets' (most versions) is right. The Greek version's 'marketplaces' reads in the later sense.

Used elsewhere in the period

Only here and in Prov 7:8 and Eccl 12:4–5. It is related to Akkadian sūqu, 'street'. Its rarity, together with the short relative pronoun 'she-', is one of the features scholars cite when dating the Song's language late or placing it in a regional dialect.

Where it appears

Proverbs · 1

  1. Proverbs 7:8 בַּ֭שּׁוּק in the street

    crossing the street near her corner, strolling down the road to her house,

    Here: 'In the lane.' A rare word for a street or lane inside a town. It is a public place where anyone might be. Being there is not wrong in itself.

Ecclesiastes · 2

  1. Ecclesiastes 12:4 בַּשּׁ֔וּק on the street

    when the doors to the street are shut and the sound of the mill fades away, when one rises at the sound of a bird and all the daughters of song grow faint,

  2. Ecclesiastes 12:5 בָשּׁ֖וּק in the street

    when men fear the heights and dangers of the road, when the almond tree blossoms, the grasshopper loses its spring, and the caper berry shrivels—for then man goes to his eternal home and mourners walk the streets.

    Here: The open street or market area. It is the same word as in v. 4, where the doors to the street were shut. Now the street fills with wailing.

Song of Songs · 1

  1. Song of Songs 3:2 בַּשְּׁוָקִים֙ in the streets

    I will arise now and go about the city, through the streets and squares. I will seek the one I love. So I sought him but did not find him.

    Here: The narrow lanes between houses. A rare word (only here, Prov 7:8, Eccl 12:4–5), related to Akkadian sūqu 'street'; later Hebrew used it for 'market', which is how the Greek translators took it.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.